Lap Quilting with Georgia Bonesteel
by Georgia Bonesteel
Have you ever done lap quilting? It's my favorite quilting technique. It works with both hand and machine quilting, and it is wonderfully portable. Once I tried this, I became a convert--never to go back to regular quilting.
The secret is in the blocks. You sandwich together a manageable-sized block (12" square or so), including the pieced top section, batting, and backing. Then you can hold it and quilt it by hand or run it easily through your sewing machine to quilt it. When you've got all your quilted blocks done, then it's time to sew them together with a clever little top-to-top seam, butted-together batting edges, and flapped-over backing connections. Brilliant!
Here's my lap-quilted summer coverlet. You can see how the blocks fit together by looking at the back--I alternated the backing stripe directions for interest. It has six 24" square blocks, rectangular blocks around the edges, and little square blocks at the corners. I also embroidered around the pictures. What you don't see is the embroidery I've been adding to the white blocks as an afterthought... twigs and leaves. Every bit of this quilt was stitched by hand, but I could have easily used a sewing machine.
I like to use a folded-over edging on my quilts, in a fairly dark color. The edge is the part of the quilt that is most exposed to wear and tear. The dark colored edging helps hide stains, and it's easy to remove and replace when the times comes.
| Recommended for This Quilt
Clover Bias 1-Inch Tape Maker I use a little tool for making my own edging. This allows me to pick exactly the color and fabric that will look good with the quilt. |
I have that book all of her books. I have yet to try it.
ReplyDeleteGive it a try with maybe a small project like a table runner or a throw. I was really amazed at how much I liked the technique.
ReplyDelete